On Saturday, August 27th, fellow GO member Dan and I met up for a late summer adventure – The Presidential Traverse!  Earlier in the summer I had attempted the traverse with fellow GO member Scott and his friend Robin – the weather turned sour so we exited after Mt. Washington.  Soon after… I was hiking with fellow go member Steve along Mt. Martha-Owls Head Ridge which on a clear day gives you spectacular visuals of the entire presidential range.  Needless to say… I was longing for a chance to try again and Steve could feel my attraction to the ridge.

This is no ordinary hike and so I casually floated some dates and trip suggestion to GO members.  Dan and I have hiked before and tackled some challenging and lengthy hikes.  Dan likes a good adventure and a physical challenge – as do I - we were on!  In our attempts to find a common date we had to cancel one weekend, the weather just wasn’t up to par.  On this particular day we couldn’t have asked for anything better.  The summit temperate was in the mid 50’s, no humidity, clear skies and moderate winds that abated as the day carried on.  Our early morning summits were indeed quite windy but they were welcome refreshment from a hard earned climb.

We spotted cars on Friday evening, had a late dinner and off to bed.  Morning came early at 4am and we made our way to the Pine Link trail head for a 5am start.  All my “interviewing” and reading suggested we start at 4:30 but Dan had a long drive the day before and the extra 30 minutes was good sleeping.  We sported our head lamps and headed up.  Our path was a traditional choice so I won’t go into the details of twists and turns.  The Pine Link offers a steep and quick ascent to Mt. Madison, a great way to get the lungs, heart and mind in motion.  You’ll see we captured a beautiful sunrise overlooking Pine Mountain and the subsequent photos are trail signs and looking back over what we accomplished up to that point.

The first summit photo is with Dan on the summit of Mt. Madison – note Mt. Washington in the background.  In each of the summit photos I tried to capture Mt. Washington to give you a sense of our progress.  We then descended Madison to the hut where I was hoping for a homemade donut for a quick snack.  Instead we were offered pancakes with blackberry jam and eggs – for $1.  Dan will attest to my need to ensure we keep moving, but we couldn’t pass this up.  We took 15 minutes and indulged.  It was good fueling for Mt. Adams.  On our way to summit Mt. Adams there is a picture of the hut and more trail signs.  Neither Dan nor I are photographed on the summit of Mt. Adams, but you’ll see we are just a touch closer to Mt. Washington.  It’s barely visible at the far left.  The entire ridge that we were about to hike was laid before us – profoundly stunning.  A few more trail sign photos and the next summit photo is Dan atop Mt. Jefferson.  The sun was creating a dark shadow over Dan and Mt. Washington was hidden behind a burst of clouds drifting over – these were the only clouds hiding the summit this day.  A few more trail signs and the next photos are one of Dan and one of me sitting atop Mt. Clay.  The photo of Dan standing is him overlooking the Great Gulf Wilderness – truly an awesome sight.  Mt. Clay remains my favorite summit along this ridge.  The next few photos are ones looking back appreciating where we’ve come from. 

After a great effort and big push – we summited Mt. Washington – and we are two happy kindred spirits – smiling ear to ear!  Sometime between Mt. Clay and Mt. Washington I learned this is Dan’s first time summiting not only Mt. Washington, but all the presidential mountains – he couldn’t have picked a more brilliant adventure or day to do so.  Congrats Dan!!

On Mt. Washington we take a rest break, refreshed our water supply, I chatted up some fellow French Canadian hikers (I find them every time).  The next photos are the trail to come – Lakes of the Clouds hut is in the deep background but visible from the summit.  We enjoyed this descent a great deal.  After having tagged five very significant peaks, we were grateful for a long stretch of tranquility. 

Most of the day we criss-crossed with many hikers who were doing the same trek we were, staying at the huts or day tripping.  When we reached the Lakes of the Clouds hut we took a break where Dan enjoyed a bowl of soup and I snacked.  To our delight we caught up with a charming gentleman who was hiking with we believe his father and relatives or friends.  He was a striking man with the most piercing blue eyes and charming demeanor.  We chatted with him at several points along our journey.  Perhaps Dan and I lingered a bit too long but we enjoyed our talk.  He wasn’t a local guy – he and his family are from Pennsylvania – but they overnighted at Pinkham Notch, hiked to and overnighted at the Madison Hut.  On Saturday they were hiking to Lakes of the Clouds to overnight and rise on Sunday to hike back to Pinkham Notch.  We shared stories from our respective journeys but sadly Dan and I bid him farewell and off we went to summit Mt. Monroe.

I’m photographed seated while Dan is standing at the summit of Mt. Monroe with Mt. Washington behind us – well behind us.  We are better than 2/3’s into our Journey and loving it.  Mt. Monroe seemed like a small hill at this point, but still a healthy challenge.  Although we felt fatigued we got a second wind.  The trail here flattens tremendously and is a much softer terrain than where we’d been most of the day.  It was easy on the feet and we developed a great stride.  The next few photos are views, signs and the trail to come until we reach the summit of Mt. Franklin which neither Dan or I are pictured.  I clicked a quick shot of Mt. Washington and we carried on.  We still had Mts. Eisenhower and Pierce to tackle and the end of the day would soon be upon us.

Mt. Eisenhower was a gift of nature.  Neither Dan nor I are pictured here…. The summit certainly loomed large the closer we got to it however we found it to be a quick and relatively easy summit at this stage of our journey.  The view looking back towards Mt. Washington is breathtaking and the vastness of the region is before you in full 360 degree panorama.  We summited with the sun low on the horizon beginning to cast shadows and brilliant colors of reds and deep yellows.  We did not linger too long… a photo of the trail to come and off we went.

As we were fast approaching Mt. Pierce a small band of clouds was forming which likely meant I wouldn’t capture sunset from the summit so I took a shot along the trail.  Our final photo of the day is Dan and I on the summit of Mt. Pierce, Mt. Washington well faded in the background due to declining day light.  We are in awe of our days achievement and very happy.  We started our day in darkness and so we would finish just the same.  We took a brief break, sported our head lamps and began the final descent.  At this stage I am on familiar territory.  I’d winter hiked Mt. Pierce so I was comfortable with the environment and knew we were in striking distance of completion.  Along our descent we caught up with a group of three gentlemen, all friends from medical school that were also doing the traverse.  We had spent the better part of the day criss-crossing one another but ended up banding together at this end of the journey.  One of the three was having a bit of difficulty getting through this last bit but he ultimately pulled himself together.  Dan and I emerged at the trail head ahead of the group and began to wrap up our journey by heading back to connect me to my car and grab a drink!  As we were leaving the parking lot we saw the three emerge and we stopped to wish them well when we learned they didn’t have their car key for the vehicle they spotted.  Turns out they started their day at Appalachia so we were able to give them a ride to their starting point as we were heading in that very direction.  Dan and I stopped to pick up beer and wine and they offered to pay for us - all worked out well and it was very generous of them to do so.  At the hotel Dan and I toasted to a brilliant adventure on a brilliant day and despite our desire to yuck it up a bit, we fell fast asleep!  We hit the trail at 5am and finished at 9:30pm - a great day for sure.

Congrats Dan on your first ascents of all the presidential summits.  New for me were Mts. Monroe, Franklin and Eisenhower.  You are a hearty soul, an awesome hiking partner and true adventurer.  Along the way you shared a few nuggets of wisdom…  love the good conversation and may I put them to good use, thank you!   I look forward to more hikes to come mate – You rock and thank you for sharing this awesome day – simply the best. 

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